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Salespeople face intense, unremitting, psychological pressure. If they don’t sell, they don’t eat. Jill Konrath, author of Agile Selling and other well-regarded sales manuals, conducted extensive secondary research on the most effective time-management and productivity techniques for salespeople. She reviewed and analyzed the work of neuroscientists, psychologists, time-management experts, cognitive behavioral specialists, psychiatrists, sleep researchers and business innovators. Here, she synthesizes and presents – perhaps a bit repetitiously – her extensive, practical findings. getAbstract recommends her productivity strategies to salespeople, account executives, entrepreneurs, consultants, sales support personnel and businesspeople.

About the Author

Jill Konrath is a globally recognized sales strategist, author and speaker. Her other books include Selling to Big Companies, SNAP Selling and Agile Selling.

Summary

Too Little Time

Time is every salesperson’s most valuable and most limited asset. Salespeople who can’t leverage their time wisely won’t meet their sales objectives or earn the commissions they need. According to the business consultancy CSO Insights, 45.4% of salespeople routinely miss their quotas.

This isn’t due to laziness or lack of effort. Research by the Center for Creative Leadership found that salespeople and other “smartphone-carrying professionals” work a whopping 72 hours a week.

The problem is that everyone’s productivity nose-dives after 55 hours. So, at least 17 of the hours the average salesperson works are relatively nonproductive. When every single minute counts, this is a waste of time.

Maximum productivity is shockingly ephemeral. Behavioral economist Dan Ariely claims people are optimally productive for only two and a half hours each day. Someone who wakes up at 7 a.m. will achieve peak productivity from 8 a.m. until about 10:30 a.m.

Like everyone else, sales professionals need to factor this and similar research-based findings about productivity into how they plan and schedule their workdays. In addition...